Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Providence has a means to
remind us that we are mere mortals in spite of having advanced technologies that
we still have to endure the fury of the nature.Chennai has been battered for last few days with incessant rains due to
multiple depressions in the bay flooding most parts of the city causing
discomfort to general public. All lakes within the city are overflowing due to inflow of rain water and added to this
the release of water from the larger lakes caused flash floods along the Adyar
river and various connected lakesand
low lying areas around theses have been flooded and the water levels reached
alarming levels submerging entire ground floors there forcing the people there
to evacuate to upper floors or to other parts of the city or to relief centres
.

In such troubling times
Chennaites rose to the occasion to take care of needy in various parts of the
city without any thoughts of caste , creed or social standing thereby setting
an example to entire India that we are humans first. People from all walks of
life came together to galvanize the relief efforts much before the government
swung into action in many localities. During the initially it was to provide
bed space for stranded people unable to reach their homes due to the flooding
of the roads. The perceived evil of the present generation such as facebook and
twitter played a very vital role throughout the relief operations and is going
on even now by letting people know of the possible bed spaces in various
localities, details of relief required or available, correct updates of the
weather by TamilWeatherman thereby squashing various rumours that were flying
around.

During the times of intense
discussions of intolerance throughout the country, Chennai floods have shown
that we are truly a tolerant society as Hindus, Muslims, Christians people of
various religiongot together opening up
their places of worship to house the displaced persons in various areas of the
city. Even the affluent shopping malls opened their door for taking people
displaced and it was very heartening to see. One comment by the armed forces personnel who
are in the city for relief operations tells it all " we have seen more
volunteers than the victims " and we are proud of the people of Chennai .

Politicians as usual were missing and those
who remained behind made it a point to showcase their efforts by calling the
media and also make comments demeaning the opposition parties. The ugly side of
the story also reared its head during this distressing times by few greedy and avaricious
persons such as

Charging
huge sum of monies from already distressed people for evacuation from low lying
areas.

Charging
double of triple time of original cost for milk, drinking water or other
essential items

Snatching
of relief material being bought by common man or NGO and labelling the same as
being done by xyz party.

Relief
materials not reaching those in really need of the same.

But then taking only the
positives and sidelining the negatives Chennai floods in fact has clearly shown
that

Nature
cannot be tampered ...land being occupied by reclaiming water bodies thereby
causing flooding of those areas.

Facebook
and Twitter are not social evils.... they have been a very useful and an
important tool in the relief operations taken up by common man

Humanity
is above all religionsand there was no
lines of division among populace of various religion. People have been
selflessly have been working to ensure proper relief and help reaches the
needy.

Intolerance
to religion social standing are being incited by few political partiesthereby creating a divide among the
population . We Chennaites have shown all are indeed a tolerant society ifwe are not swayed by the political parties.

Hope that this attitude
displayed by people of Chennai at times of need is infectious and spreads to
all parts of the country .

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Multiple Depressions inBay of Bengal / Indian Oceancaused the rain gods to open up the sky on
Chennai and Chennaites experiencedheavy downpour and flooding in most low lying areas to the extent the
social media trolling about introduction of Ola Boat services. To escape the
depressing moodsat Chennai and at home
toodecided to pile on to two friends of
mine who were driving downfromChennai to Kabini to rejuvenate myself.

The time we started from Chennai
there was no rains but then within a hour of the commencement heavy rains
started lashing and this lasted for couple of hoursthereby delaying our journey time.

For the
first time in 22 years we saw flowing water in Palar river. The roads till
Kancheepuram was bad but then after that a smooth ride indeed and i have to
thank my friend who drove the entire route without flinching or discomfort
though i offered to drive some part of the way.

Kabini is definitely is
definitely a magical place and even my wife acknowledges it as the moment i
plan a trip to Kabini my face is aglow with happiness and all the troubles in
the world seems as though its nothing but manageable. This is one reason as to
why i keep travelling to Kabini every now and then so that i retain my sanity.
:)

We had planned to spend quite
some time at Ranganathittu bird sanctuary but then the heavy rains the previous
days did play spoil sport and we left for Kabini with just about an hour at the
bird sanctuary where we were able to capture images ofTickle blue and fantailed fly catchers in
addition to the pelicans.

At Kabini we were keeping our fingers crossed and
were praying that it does not rain as the sky were overcast and lighting was
dull. It did not rain and we are off for the first safari with high hopes of
having sighting of the big cats ie tigers and leopard. On entering the forest
were surprised that it was too quite except for chirping of bird and
insects..... no alarm calls at all which normally happens when there are
movements of predators in the forest. It was the same during the next three
safaris and it was as though the big cats have migrated or gone into
hibernation. With a hour left for completion of our last safari as we were
moving around various trails in the forest suddenly our naturalist whispers
Leopard on tree branch...it was a fantastic sighting by him for most of would
have surely missed this guy even when our eyes were peeled on to the tree line
as it was camouflaged in such a way that we would have thought it is a tree
branch.

We did have the usual sightings
of the Elephants, mongooses, Malabar pied hornbills and other birds in addition
to the leopard. Pug marks and carcass smell kept on the edge of our seats
hoping that we would sight the tiger but alas we did not sight any tigers this
time.

So finally a elusive leopard
sighted... this goes to prove the saying that Kabini never disappoints.
Returned back to Chennai totally refreshed and charged toface the coming days of challenges in life.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Last few days most facebook
users has seen unprecedented social
media movement with respect to the captivity of T24 aka Ustad for killing a
forest guard. This movement has garnered support from all part of the nation
and also internationally and there has been intense and emotional out pour in
most of the threads that were there on the face book for saving Ustadand returning back into the wild. Most
comments on these post were questioning the Tiger expert's comments and the
nexus of businessmen & RTR authorities who were supposedly behind the
secretive shifting of the tiger 400 kms away from Ranathambore.

Subsequent High Court's dismissal
of the petition filed by a wildlife enthusiast meant that T24 aka Ustad has to
remain in captivity. It is indeed sad that the free spirit of the tiger T24 has
been curtailed by the whims and fancies of the superior species..human being.

Reproducing an apt comment
from one of the post "Okay, we have slapped a wild animal for
being wild.... let's see how more human can we be "(copy right PS Anand) . Humans are the second deadliest species in the
world after Mosquitoes for the maximum number of kills

Personally I have never
visited any of the Tiger reserves other than those in South India and my stance
for not visiting sanctuaries in north is not a recent one. I have never liked
the idea of over 20 gypsies crowding a single tiger for the sake of
photographing the animal. With the advent social media network and its reach to
the masses there is a fierce competition among the photographers to gain social
awareness for it does make business sense in the event for those who livelihood
is photography. And hence there is a constant demand of posting better images
or the wildlife from various parts of the country & world. Hence the
crowding of the forests in places where no rules prevail. Last year i did
object to one such incident at RTR on the social media network wherein a guide
for additional tips from the photographers breaks all rules .... instead of
taking my comment objectively i was abused by friends and supporters of the
specific guide. Similar topics of RTR has been posted and discussed in lengths
for several years but there seems to be no change in the attitude and
functioning of RTR.

Now that this episode of T24
has brought forth so many like minded people together for a common cause of
saving our wildlife let us all channel our collective energies in bringing out
a change in the system and wild life conservation .

Monday, May 25, 2015

Hasty decisions in labelling T24
aka Ustad as man eater by Tiger expert Mr. Valmiki Thapar. But then being a
tiger expert he would know that the actions of Ustad are not that of a man
eating tiger. He has never stalked or attacked human beings for his meals in
spite of having maximum human intrusions in form of pilgrims going to the
temple on foot. Mr. Valmiki stated that he had insisted that Ustad be put in
zoo after killing of two villagers in 2012 and partially consuming too. Once a
tiger tastes human flesh they start to like the salty meat and thereby start
preferring human flesh and become man eaters. Whereas even though it is
supposedly stated that Ustad has partially consumed human flesh of the human
kills he has not killed humans till recently and that too because he was
surprised by the guard. Now my question
to the expert is “Why did Ustad not kill humans till date from 2012 in spite of
heavy human traffic in his territory?? Why suddenly Ustad is termed dangerous
and need to be put away??

A similar human corollary to the
tiger incident “A burglar enters you home and you would surely take actions to
protect your property and in course of fight kill the person. Are you termed a
killer?? I am sure you would say no but in case of an animal that killed because
man intruded into its space you term it a man eater. This is an unfair
judgement by experts and authorities of RTR!!!

Moreover it is not still conclusive
proved that T24 is responsible for the human kill, for immediately after the
killing of Mr. Ramphal, other guards & a writer who were around noticed another male tiger
there T72 aka Sultan in the vicinity and was suspected of killing the guard.
The blame was shifted on to T24 just because he came back to the spot and was
sniffing the bloodied area…

All felines/ canines are having a
keen sense of smell and yes they would investigate if that smell of blood is in
their territory. Forensic investigation
of the area would have clearly indicated as to what had happened on the
eventful day and which tiger was involved and this was not done, instead
statement made earlier by guards and few other persons were changed few hours
later implicating T24 aka Ustad and the reasons for this change is unknown.
This incident on the whole is quite murky and is filled with so many
controversies and the affect party is the Tiger Ustad who cannot express
himself.

I have seen so many comments
where the person is saying that this being done to safe guard the forest foot
patrol and pilgrims but then are they ensuring the safety of those people by
taking T24 out of the equation now. Who takes the responsibility if the T72 now
kills couple of pilgrims or a forest guard?

We may be armchair activists
without venturing on foot patrols within the forest or know the ground realities,
but then the villagers and the forest guards knew of Ustad’s notoriety and
suspected kills by him yet continued to go about their works without a worry
till date. Why?? (This is a question to expert who stated that T24 has to be
put down)

Saturday, April 18, 2015

The
hottest topic few days back was " My Choice" a HomiAdajania'sdirected video featuring Deepaka Padukone, made waves those days and has over ten millions
ofviews on the You tube. The video has taken the social media by a
stormand there were intense debates
happening on the pro's and con's of the subject . The video talks of women
empowerment and choosing to live their lives as they please. This message is
not being accepted by many women in India, for they do not have a choice in choosing the life they want to lead and this is quite evident from outpour of comments on twitter,
face book and blogs by women themselves.

But
then is your life really the choice you have chosen with free mind ?? Majority
of human beingslead their life based on
choices they take due to family pressures, a. sense of duty or for love or to
the job they have . So what's so great about few urban bred women on a slick
video saying it is their choice to choose their profession , to sleep with
anyone or the get drunkand to wear
anything .Is it really so??? No its a false facade being put up by those women
and I am sure they are not really happy the way their lives is progressing. It
is fashionable and cool statement to make among your peer group that you are
leading your life as per your choice though it may be someone else's choice.

Millions
of women in the villages and by lanes of the cities in India don't have a
choice in their lives and they take orders in every step of their lives and
abide by it for the sake of their families. So what happens to " My
Choice" for these women who are emotionally blackmailed by the family. The
prostitutes are not in the world's profession by their choice ..they have been
forced into the same and now it is their way of life .

Men do
want to live their life by their choices but it never works out like that for them as they are bound by their families, friends,
office and society and the choices they take has relevance to these factor. People
in Iran had no choice but to lead the life as chosen by Muslim clerics once Ayatollah came back into power in that country in late seventies. Life in many of the middle
eastern countries in not what one wants to lead but have no option but to live
the way it is chosen for you by others. Take
for instance me... I would love to be in India along with my family and to lead
a comfortable retired life engaging in my interests but then no for i had to be away from home working my ass
off in a god forsaken place in the just so that I earn handsomely and the
family can lead a comfortable life and all commitments are met.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

"Empty pots make more noise" is an apt
description for the couch experts and I am sure most of you would have come
across one such expert in your lifetime. The topic could be anything in the
world and you can see quite a few of these special people commenting in social
media networks or jumping into the conversation stressing their point of view
without having a total knowledge of the topic under discussion. I keep
following wildlife and nature on the social media networks and there has been
so many topics that has been extensively argued or commented and the experts
are good in their comments but then they keep tending to dump all faults on the
authorities without out giving any thoughts of the ground realities that exists
in the discussions that is being done.

Image Courtesy Google Images

One
incident comes to my mind right away about a Man eating tiger that was shot dead
in Nilgiris ranges and this topic was raging on both Facebook and Twitter with
scores of people just blaming the forest department of not capturing the animal
and commuting it to a zoo. To be frank even i have queried the decision to kill
the man eater instead of the capturing the same but then in this particular
incident i chanced on a post by a facebook friend who is a retired forest
officer and while going through the post and its comment i came to understand
the other side of the story (authorities) wherein there are so many factors
involved that needs to be considered which we as ordinary citizen are not aware
of while we make our comments.

It
is very easy for all of us to sit in our air conditioned office/home and pass
comments on the operations that is taking place on the ground... be it a
cricket match, a football match or the hunt for the man eater without an iota
of idea the actual conditions in the field. In short the people who are not
experts needs to give constructive comments instead of negative or abusive comments
that seems to be the trend. We in India have many other factors that has direct
implications to any specific issue right from political angle, unscrupulous
persons and there is no point in just commenting and winning likes on a post. It
is said if you are not happy with what is happening then get on the ground
yourself and try to change that is happening instead of crying foul .... this
will not happen for who wants to leave the comfort and security of their spaces
and be faced with ire of scorned persons.

This
is my opinion and is not directed at any person or group and any such inference
if any is by the reader :)

About Me

A widely traveled, an engineer by profession and reaching the milestone of becoming a senior citizen, living each day of life as it comes. Life is short so enjoy while it lasts. Love wildlife adventures and visiting new places